THE SPANKING HAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20426, 30 November 1929, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE SPANKING HAND.

LET IT FALL LICHTLY.

* BY KATHF.RIXE CATIK

The question whether children should or should not be spanked will always give rise to debate, and the opposing factions—the spankists and the antispankists—will never meet on common ground. On the one hand we find people who insist that the strap, the cane, and the heavy right Land are the only effective mpans of curbing the evil and unruly .impulses of the young. On the other hand are thoso who insist that the impulses of childhood are neither evil nor unruly, and that the infliction of corporal punishment is wrong in principle and altogether unnecessary. The obvious injustice to the victims of the strap-and-cane system is that they are at the mercy of the man or woman who wields the stick, and if these are inflamed with sudden anger or are spiteful and vindictive through chronic bad temper the bruises and welts that are raised on little bare legs and thin, childish shoulders may be brutally excessive. The hysterical mother who " flies off the handle " at the slightest provocation anil hands out indiscriminate slaps and thumps has a blighting influence on the lives_ of her Children which no amount of petting and affectionate indulgence in her calmer moods can quite counteract. Though the children themselves are unconscious of their preference, there is no doubt that the child-mind is deeply impressed with dignity and serenity in grown-up people* Hysterical outbursts, loud scoldings, and other displays of temper on the part of their/parents are apt to diminish both the respect and affection which normal children hold for elders. The parent who thrashes his (t-i her) children relentlessly in a moment of anger and then makes/ clumsy advances to the injured one with kisses and a jar of ointment is a fool. The sting of the physical injury is for the moment the chief cause of the child's tears and resentment, but to a sensitive child it is the humiliation of n thrashing which hurts most and lasts longest. Years after the child has forgotteri the pain of an unwise punishment the feeling of resentment against the one who inflicted it may still linger—not an active resentment, nor a desire for revenge., but just a pained wonder that such injustice should be perpetuated in the name of parental love. Fortunately for the hoys and girls of to-day cane does not figure largely arid so menacingly in modern teaching met hods as it did in earlier generations. ( " Gross misbehaviour and disobedience ' are considered/sufficient grounds for strapping or caning, but only a teacher who acknowledges himself a failure punishes children for not knowing their lessons. To punish a child for mistakes that are due to over-anxiety and nervousness is now acknowledged as a grave error, and if the delinquencies of the child cannot be punished under the headings of misbehavior - or disobedience then obviously it is the teacher who should be punished for not teaching a little better! Children who are over-spanked have a lot of their natural sweetness and capacity for affection thrashed out of them, find children who are never spanked at all are usually spoilt to the point of being objectionable. So what is one to do? As I see it, there are a few very definite rules to be observed in this game of handing out punishment. Don't take hysterics too easily and wield the stick too blindly. Don't burden the children with irksome responsibilities that spoil their play unduly—minding peevis.i babies or keeping the fowls off the tfarden-T~and when you do smack them don't be too hard on their bony little legs, don't hit -them over the head, .and End, please, don't thump them! I L